Columnist.
Five years ago, President Obama hailed the military campaign in Libya that toppled Muammar Gadafhi as one of the foreign-policy triumphs of his presidency. Today he calls Libya his worst mistake. But though he may have changed his grade from an A to an F, his commitment to "leading from behind" — a euphemism for American passivity and abdication — hasn't budged.
Barbara Anderson, RIP
You're a private landlord, renting apartments in a building you bought with your savings from years of hard work and modest living. You take pride in maintaining your property, keeping it clean, comfortable, and attractive. You charge a fair rent and treat your tenants with courtesy and respect. Your tenants, in turn, appreciate the care you put into the building. And they trust you to screen prospective tenants wisely, accepting only residents who won't jeopardize the building's safe and neighborly character. That's why you only consider applications from individuals who are employed or in school, whose credit scores are strong, and who have no criminal record.
In 1953, the Catholic Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette established a shrine and spiritual retreat on a 199-acre lot in Attleboro, Mass. The shrine's motto — "Come nearer, my children" — is reflected in the array of opportunities it offers worshipers and pilgrims to draw close to God. Among them: daily Masses, religious conferences, a soup kitchen for the hungry, and a Festival of Lights at Christmastime that attracts 400,000 visitors.
Imagine Donald Trump with the immense power of the presidency
Venerable political norms have been upended during this crazy election season, but at least one presidential-campaign tradition remains intact. Every four years, candidates for the White House firmly pledge that, if elected, they will relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 2016 has been no exception.
Long before Tuesday's terror attacks in Brussels, it was clear that Belgium had become a breeding ground for Islamist extremists. Hundreds of Belgian Muslims — as many as 500, according to one estimate — have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS, making Belgium by far Europe's leading supplier of foreign jihadists. Last November's horrific slaughter in Paris was masterminded by a Belgian radical, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and at least four of the men who carried out those attacks were from the Brussels district of Molenbeek. One of them was Salah Abdeslam, who was captured in Molenbeek, after an intense manhunt, on March 19.
More illegal immigrants have been expelled from the United States during Barack Obama's presidency than ever before. Since 2009, the Obama administration has removed 2.5 million people from American soil — an enormous crackdown that has consumed an enormous amount of money. The federal government now spends more on border and immigration enforcement than it spends on all other criminal law-enforcement agencies — including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Secret Service, the US Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — combined.
At Milton Academy, the tony Massachusetts prep school, the longstanding "one boy, one girl" rule requiring equal representation on the student council has been scrapped. The student government voted this month to move beyond what the council's cochairman refers to as the "archaic norms" of male and female, and instead "accept the world and the people within it the way they are now." To which I say: Out of the mouth of babes.
The folly of early-voting laws
The folly of early-voting laws
The U.S. Court of Appeals last week upheld the conviction of James "Whitey" Bulger, the infamous South Boston gangster and serial murderer now serving two life sentences at a penitentiary in Florida. The three-judge panel unanimously rejected Bulger's claim that his trial was unfair because he wasn't allowed to tell the jury that a top prosecutor had long ago promised him immunity for any crimes he might commit, up to and including murder.
On July 18, 2013, the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued a report on the savage war crimes being committed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. "Government forces and affiliated militia have committed murder, torture, rape, forcible displacement, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts," the report said. "Many of these crimes were perpetrated as part of widespread or systematic attacks against civilian populations and constitute crimes against humanity." Assad's forces were methodically starving civilian populations and deliberately bombarding hospitals, the commission reported. Torture had become "endemic," with prisoners having "boiling water poured on them and electric shocks administered."
In a super-blue state like Massachusetts, Super Tuesday was the Election Day that mattered. The outcome in November is a foregone conclusion: The Democratic presidential nominee will win the state by a landslide. So Tuesday's primary election was the only chance Bay State voters had to cast a ballot that might have an impact. I cast mine for Bernie Sanders.
The framers of the US Constitution were a brilliant bunch, but even they blundered now and then. One of their blunders was life tenure for Supreme Court justices, a constitutional flaw for which Americans are paying a price to this day. The political mud fight that erupted within hours of Antonin Scalia's death was as predictable as it was disgraceful. When President Obama announced his intention to nominate a new justice promptly, Senate Republicans indignantly howled that an election-year confirmation was out of the question, and that any nomination should wait until voters could choose a new president. Senate Democrats howled just as indignantly that Scalia's seat must not be left vacant, and that it would be scandalous for the Senate not to hold hearings and a vote on the president's nominee.
"By all accounts, the Castro regime's repression has grown worse, not better."
President Obama makes no secret of his eagerness to visit Cuba, but as recently as December he insisted that there would be no such trip until human rights and civil liberties on the island had improved. "What I've said to the Cuban government is, if ... we're seeing some progress in the liberty and freedom and possibilities of ordinary Cubans, I'd love to use a visit as a way of highlighting that progress," Obama told Yahoo! News. "If we're going backwards, then there's not much reason for me to be there."
John Tyler's presidency was born in a fog of constitutional confusion. On April 4, 1841, President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, just one month into his term as the nation's ninth chief executive. It was the first time a president had died in office, and no one could say with certainty what was supposed to happen next. The relevant language in the Constitution was murky: "In case of the [president's] death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office," commands Article II, Section 1, "the same shall devolve on the vice president."
New Hampshire primary voters have long taken pride in subjecting presidential wannabes to a long and thoroughgoing scrutiny — vetting the candidates on their political stands, grilling them at innumerable town hall meetings, assessing their demeanor on the campaign trail. White House hopefuls held themselves to a high standard of civility, or they didn't win the first-in-the-nation primary. By handing a victory to Donald Trump in this year's primary, New Hampshire's voters may have just blown up that long-nurtured credibility.
Freedom House, the esteemed human rights and democracy organization, is out with the latest edition of its flagship publication, "Freedom in the World," an annual survey of political rights and civil liberties in every country on earth. The news is dispiriting. For the 10th year in a row global freedom declined, with 72 countries becoming less free, while 43 made gains. Of the world's 7.3 billion people, only 40 percent live in countries rated "Free," down from 46 percent a decade ago. Another 24 percent live in nations designated as "Partly Free," while the remaining 36 percent — more than one-third of the human race — suffers under the repressive regimes that rule countries deemed "Not Free."
